Harry Potter and the Avatars
by Joshua The Evil Guy
Summary: Sequel to my story "Harry Potter And The Train To Nowhere". Picking up where the last story left off, Harry continues to play the Stupid Game, as he has nothing better to do anyway.


Title: Harry Potter and the Avatars

Author: Joshua "The Evil Guy"

Disclaimer: JKR owns HP and all related characters and concepts. Other crossovers are to be considered Easter Eggs, so enjoy figuring them out. I own nothing, I get paid nothing and get no profit from this, and I'm broke anyway, so don't bother suing me. Please.

Summary: Sequel to my story "Harry Potter And The Train To Nowhere". Picking up where the last story left off, Harry continues to play the Stupid Game, as he has nothing better to do anyway.

(AN: This story is one that I have been working on since BEFORE I posted "Train To Nowhere", and I'm only about four/sixths of the way through the next chapter, but it is Halloween and I needed to post _something_ , so here it is. With that in mind, please be aware that any and all updates to this story are going to be few and very far between. Thank you and Please Enjoy!)

"Harry Potter and the Avatars": Prologue

aka Level Six: _"Avatars"_

Harry walked into the Great Hall in single file with all the rest of the First Years. It was a long line, there were over a hundred of them, and yet the size of the Hall still made it seem like they were but a small number of what should or could have been there. Nevertheless, they were marched past all the other older students, who were already sitting and watching, their pale faces highlighted in the candlelight. After the First Years were all lined up at the front of the room, the Head Table behind them, the four House Tables before them, Professor McGonagall stepped forward with the Sorting Hat and the three-legged stool in either hand.

What followed was verbatim what happened the first time, but then on this point Harry didn't expect a lot of variation as McGonagall gave the exact same speech for _every_ set of First Years to come through Hogwarts. The Hat's song was different, but he didn't pay any attention, since there was music accompaniment coming from the ceiling, making it sound more like an actual music intro to the Game, rather than the odd nature of the Hat to come up with rhymes for every set of First Years.

Once the impromptu rock concert was complete, the Professor then proceeded with reading off the list of names before her, in the same alphabetical order. Harry tried to stifle the yawn threatening to come out, but was not entirely successful. He tried to learn who all the new students were and where they went, but all too soon they began to blur together, there were just too many. Finally they got to the 'P's and their group cut down by a little over half.

With a relieved sigh, Harry walked up to the stool and allowed Professor McGonagall to put the Hat on his head. Only, instead of the Sorting Hat whispering in his head, he found himself facing a VR variation of the Screens he'd been dealing with so far.

* **CHOOSE YOUR HOUSE:** *

GRYFFINDOR

 _"The House of Courage, uses the Lion totem and its colors are scarlet and gold while its Common Room is housed in one of the many towers of Hogwarts. Head of Gryffindor is Minerva McGonagall, Nearly-Headless Nick is the House Ghost, founder was Godric Gryffindor. The House corresponds to the element of Fire, and provides a HP and Stamina Bonus. Your Best Friends will be Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley."_

HUFFLEPUFF

 _"The House of Loyalty, uses the Badger totem and its colors are yellow and black while its Common Room is housed in the basement of the main castle near the kitchens. Head of Hufflepuff is Pomona Sprout, the Fat Friar is the House Ghost, founder was Helga Hufflepuff. The House corresponds to the element of Earth, and provides a HP, Luck, and RL Bonus. Your Best Friends will be Susan Bones and Justin Finch-Fletchley."_

RAVENCLAW

 _"The House of Knowledge, uses the Raven totem and its colors are blue and bronze while its Common Room is housed in one of the many towers of Hogwarts. Head of Ravenclaw is Filius Flitwick, the Grey Lady is the House Ghost, founder was Rowena Ravenclaw. The House corresponds to the element of Air, and provides an MP and Intelligence Bonus. Your Best Friends will be Hermione Granger and Willow Rosenberg."_

SLYTHERIN

 _"The House of Cunning, uses the Serpent totem and its colors are green and silver while its Common Room is housed in the dungeons under the lake. Head of Slytherin is Severus Snape, the Bloody Baron is the House Ghost, founder was Salazar Slytherin. The House corresponds to the element of Water, and provides an MP, Charisma and RL Bonus. Your Best Friends will be Xander Harris and Tracey Davis."_

* **PLEASE SELECT ONE** *

Harry sighed. Not that he had anything against the other Houses, but honestly, he'd been a Gryffindor for 7 years already. And while he was... annoyed, he was by no means bored enough with this to try for any of the other Houses. And that was the only way he could ever imagine choosing one of them, if he got bored of knowing what was to come since he'd already done it all. Besides, this Game promised to keep things... interesting in the House of Lions. He selected, "Gryffindor."

* **Are you sure?** *

 **YES/NO**

"Yes, I'm sure, Gryffindor," he confirmed.

* **Would you like to change Avatars?** *

 **YES/NO**

"Avatars? What... oh, those statue things. But I thought I only had one Avatar available?" he asked.

* **AVATARS** *

List of Available Avatars

 _Harry James Potter (Default)_

 _Harri Jamie Potter_

 _Harry Zatara_

 _Watcher Harry_

 _Harry Spellman_

"Where did... wait! Zatara? Spellman? Is this because... How did I unlock these?" he asked

* _Harri Jamie Potter - Unlock Requirements: Complete Tutorial._

* _Harry Zatara - Unlock Requirements: Attain RL:8 "Friend" status with Zatanna._

* _Watcher Harry - Unlock Requirements: Attain RL:8 "Friend" status with either Xander Harris or Willow Rosenberg._

* _Harry Spellman - Unlock Requirements: Attain RL:8 "Friend" status with Sabrina Spellman._

The Alerts came out of nowhere, but at least they answered his questions. He knew from the Hints that he could keep all his Skills and Abilities and everything, and it looked like his Level had been set back to 1 anyway, so this might be a unique opportunity. Then he remembered the one statue that really stood out to him, and that was the only reason he even recalled it at this moment.

"What are the Unlock Requirements for... Mister Black?" he asked.

* _Mr. Black - Unlock Requirements:_ _SPECIAL 10_ _; Meet the "Professor" and "Henchgirl"._

"Special ten?" he repeated.

* _SPECIAL 10_ _\- 10 specific Avatars that require ALL other Avatars at least be Unlocked before even being able to meet their base Unlock Requirements._

Harry blinked. "Is there a way that I could do that _without_ having to unlock ALL of them?"

* _Cheat Codes allow for_ _specific_ _overrides of Game Features. Cheat Codes can be found throughout the Game. Cheat Codes regarding the_ _SPECIAL 10_ _are found across the gameplay of multiple Avatars._

"... So I still have to play close to all of them to find these Cheat Codes to override it. Can I get at least a hint about which ones would let me get the Mr. Black Avatar sooner?"

* _Cheat Codes for_ _SPECIAL 10_ _are found only in gameplay of; Harry James Potter, Harri Jamie Potter, Harry Granger, Harry Black, Harry Malfoy, Runaway Harry, Martial Artist Harry, Unspeakable Harry, The Professor, and Super Harry._

"I know I'm going to regret this," he muttered before asking, "What are the unlock requirements for each of those? Since I've only unlocked two of those, I don't want to be wasting my time on needless stuff."

* _Harry Granger - Unlock Requirements: Attain RL:10 "Faithful" status with Hermione and RL:9 "Trustworthy" status with both her parents before graduating Hogwarts._

* _Harry Black - Unlock Requirements: Free Sirius from Azkaban, clear his name, and learn Animagus Ability from him_ _before_ _Third Year._

* _Harry Malfoy - Unlock Requirements: Unlock 'Harry Black' and play through First Year with Draco Malfoy as Best Friend or at least RL:9 "Trustworthy" status for 90% of that time._

* _Runaway Harry - Unlock Requirements: Run away from Dursleys during Tutorial, Decline going to Hogwarts, and live homeless without being captured or sent back to Dursleys for at least one year._

* _Martial Artist Harry - Unlock Requirements: Unlock Harry Dursley, Unlock Harry Gryffindor, Unlock Runaway Harry, play Runaway Harry for three years and join a dojo and attain Title of "Black Belt"._

* _Unspeakable Harry - Unlock Requirements: Spy Harry, Auror Harry, Mercenary Harry, Dragon Tamer Harry, Cursebreaker Harry, Prankster Harry, and Potions Master Harry to be unlocked. Must get O+ in all courses for all Years and must take ALL courses from 3rd Year on (in any Avatar). Must complete quest 'Unspeakable Hazing'. Allows permanent access to Department of Mysteries for all Avatars_

* _The Professor - Unlock Requirements: Become 'The Professor' and have a suitable NPC be your 'Henchgirl', by locating The Professor and Henchgirl and attaining the Title(s) of Apprentice to them._

* _Super Harry - Unlock Requirements: Kill Voldemort solo, by yourself, with no Team, no friends, no help._

"Okay, this is going to take a while. Then in that case, let's stick with what I know, then I can find the first Cheat Code. Harry James Potter, Yes," he selected and confirmed.

Next thing he knew, the Hat was lifted off his head and Gryffindor was shouting and hollaring and carrying on.

-Time Break-

Harry proceeded to live through his First Year at Hogwarts for a second time. With a few... major differences from before of course. Number one, and obvious, his life was now a video game. Not a cool, action packed, reflex-testing video game, not a level-by-level _scripted_ video game, not even one of those "popular" video games based off of books, TV shows, movies and comic books! No, his was the magical equivalent of one of those MMORPG video games, only instead of millions of people playing on computers, it was just him and only him and every other person in the world was an NPC. A Non-Player-Character.

Some things stayed the same as before. A lot didn't.

Number two, of what was going to be a list that went into the thousands he was sure, the classes at Hogwarts now consisted of going in and listening to the Professor lecture, and then fighting the Professor in what equated to a duel of their respective subject. In Charms, Professor Flitwick told him, and just him, the spell, and suddenly Harry would have it available to him, and after he'd equip it, the diminutive Professor would walk him though using the spell on various objects, sometimes people, around the room and then grade him on his performance. In Defense Against The Dark Arts, Professor Quirrell actually dueled him, but was never affected when Harry managed to hit him, which was annoying enough, and worse was that if Harry was clipped or full on hit then the Professor didn't stop until 'time' for the lesson had expired. In Herbology, same thing, Professor Sprout gave him a task to do, whether it be repotting a plant, or just watering them, and she'd teach him a spell and have him go throughout the greenhouse using it on all the applicable plants. In History of Magic, there was no magic learning, but rather than lectures on Goblin Rebellions that he vaguely remembered, Professor Binns taught him about actually relevant and modern information, and then had him come up to the blackboard and literally draw connections between the names, dates, and descriptions. In Transfiguration, Professor McGonagall was a bit different as instead of having it do the spells in front of her, she would send him through an obstacle course where the only way to get through it was using the spell he'd been taught. In Potions, well, amidst Snape insulting him which was actually pretty normal, he had to mix together potions from already prepared ingredients, which actually made it easier for him. In all cases, he was graded by the time the lesson was completed.

Once he got a 100 %, which wasn't difficult it _was_ First Year after all, he was done with the class and allowed to either sit around, or move on to explore. That was the third major difference, he had more freedom and 'free time' than he'd ever had as an actual Hogwarts Student! And no homework!

But, on the plus side, it gave him plenty of opportunity to discover all sorts of Secret Areas and hidden Skill Points and other Game goodies. A big part of this extra freedom and time he spent looking for the promised Cheat Codes that would allow him to override the Game. So far, he hadn't found much.

Which lead him to the last of the 'obvious' major changes; people. Number 4, there were now more than a hundred First Years instead of barely thirty like originally. Number 5, the people he knew as friends and acquaintances, and even as enemies... they were different. Almost... artificial at times. For starters, none of the were aware or could be made aware of the Game or Game elements. More than that, well after having spent nearly 7 years sleeping in the same room with him, Harry felt he knew Ron Weasley pretty well. And while they didn't stay in the same room, he knew Hermione Granger as well. Whoever... whatever these NPCs were, they were not the true Ron and Hermione.

Hermione, for starters, was always inquisitive, always seeking knowledge, her eyes never resting, her mind never stopped thinking. Multiple times in the game he caught her just sitting there, not a thought in her head judging from both expression and behavior after he'd gotten her attention. Ron, similarly, was always rather self involved and to draw his attention to something or someone other than himself it had to be a rather huge deal. Whenever they were together, Ron listened and did whatever Harry told him to without a question asked, eager to please. Like a human wizard version of Dobby.

The others, the ones he didn't know so well, there was no way for him to know just how artificial they were or weren't. Still, they were a nice change of pace, and a definite plus to him was that once he got to RL:8 status with anybody, no matter who or what, it took a _LOT_ to have them drop from that, and if it did, it only dropped one level to RL:7. So far that hadn't happened, but at least he didn't have to worry about 'keeping up with' all his friends and made sure he spent equal time with them and listened to all their problems or talked about the most trivial of topics just because they had to. Real friendships were a lot of maintenance, he knew. Here, in the Game, once he got to RL:8 with them, he could walk away and not speak to them again for months and they'd still be his 'Friend' and their loyalties wouldn't have shifted a bit.

All told, it hadn't taken him long to come to the conclusion that this whole thing was not actual life, but some unbelievably elaborate illusion or dream. But at least it was something to do, and it wasn't exactly torture, which is what his actual life had become, so he wasn't complaining. Yet.

It was also why he'd decided to go for the Mr. Black Avatar. That Avatar claimed that it was omnipotent and all-knowing, and that its Special Skills were pretty much everything, anything, and more; 'God, Q, Death, Henchgirl's Boss, all rolled into one body called Mister Black'. If there was any way, any way at all out of this Game thing, _that_ was it.

So, his sole objective was to get the Mr. Black Avatar and use it to go back to his life, his world, and change things. Make it better, fix regrets, whatever it took. Until then, he played the Game.

About halfway through September, something new happened. An... event for lack of a better term. Basically, one quest became available and * _absolutely everybody_ * he spoke to, no matter the reason he was speaking to them, started talking about him taking this quest and pointing him to the quest giver. It got bad enough he didn't bother waiting or trying to find out anything more, he just went straight to Madam Hooch on the Quidditch Pitch. Took him only a few seconds after seeing her there standing next to a flying broom to remember that it was pretty close to the day of his first flying lesson. The day he and Malfoy fought over Neville's Rememberall and Professor McGonagall caught him on a broom... and recruited him as the youngest Seeker in a century for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

Well, he thought to himself while walking up to Madam Hooch, it has been a while since I last enjoyed a good game of Quidditch. Could be fun.

The Quest was titled, "Desperately Seeking..." and instead of the entire group of First Years, it was just him and Madam Hooch and she had him * _literally_ * flying through rings and hoops all over the place. Of course, between his own experience and the Ability _Natural Flying Talent_ , he aced everything she put him through. After that, she offered him a couple options on who he could see next; Professor McGonagall, or Hagrid for something seemingly unrelated. Having gone on quite a few Quests by now, and knowing the Game's tendency to screw with what had been, he went to see Hagrid, who had him use his 'newfound' broom skills to catch and collect a number of small flying things for some frivolous reason. After that was done, really it was easier than most of the Snitch catching practices Wood had put him through over the years, Hagrid then said he could either go check in with Professor McGonagall, or go see if Neville needed his help with anything. Harry actually breathed a sigh of relief, as he half feared that this would have turned into one of those multi-tiered Quests.

Then he went and spoke to Neville and saw the name of the Quest had changed to "Desperately Seeking...Susan!". As originally happened, Malfoy had stolen Neville's Rememberall. _Unlike_ before, Malfoy wasn't on a broom of his own, but instead running around the castle and climbing to the top of each tower and playing 'Keep Away' by tossing the glass orb between himself, Crabbe, Goyle and a few others on top of each of the towers. Harry caught it inside of sixty seconds. Then, after returning the Rememberall to Neville, it turned red, and all of a sudden he was the Longbottom's errand boy, which is what happens in Quests (sigh), and running around checking on everything Neville could think of that he'd 'forgotten'. Turns out everything he'd 'forgotten' was all just prep work for a date Neville was supposed to take Susan Bones on. Except he'd forgotten that they were supposed to be going on a date in the first place. Then, in the end, after talking to Hannah Abbott about it, _she_ reminded Neville of the date, only to reveal that Susan had been captured by some Acromantula and they needed Harry to use his broom to go find her, rescue her, and return her in time for her date with Neville.

Stupid Game.

After rescuing Susan from the Acromantula, just a race through the trees really, no big deal, turns out Hannah took her friend's place on the date, and Susan had about as much idea as Neville did that they were going on a date, which is to say none at all. Seeing her best friend on a wonderful date apparently gave Susan some ideas and suddenly he turned into the Bones errand boy.

By dinner time, after collecting an ungodly amount of random crap that had little – if anything – to do with a date of any kind, most of which required using his broom to get, he finally completed all the 'side quests' and just like that everybody started telling him to go see Professor McGonagall. Who did not give him further tasks, instead she just immediately took him to Wood, and he joined the Quidditch Team as their new Seeker.

Of course after dinner that night, Malfoy confronted him and Ron (and Hermione and Xander and Willow and Sabrina and Neville) and challenged him to a duel. Unfortunately, it was like he had a silencing spell over him as he couldn't stop Ron from accepting for him, despite knowing that there was no way Malfoy was going to show up. Despite knowing that they probably would never have even seen Fluffy without going through all this in the first place, Harry _really_ didn't feel like going through it again. So the moment he was able to speak, which was as Malfoy was turning away, he shouted out, "Hey Malfoy! I'm not waiting! I, Harry James Potter, challenge you, Draco Lucius Malfoy, to a duel here and now, officially!"

That stopped the Slytherin prince in his tracks, figuratively and literally, as the already pale boy turned white as a sheet, his eyes filled with fear. Before they knew it, the Professors had come out of the wood work, almost literally in some cases, and dragged the pair off to the Great Hall, which had been transformed into the same format it had been when Lockhart had his stupid Dueling club. Apparently Harry had somehow unlocked a new feature of the game, and so long as 'both parties' agreed to it – which is to say neither of them say 'No' to it – he can challenge anyone to a duel and they can challenge him. He opted to have no Second for this official duel, while Draco kept Crabbe as his.

The dueling system was the same as what the Boss Fight was like, except Draco was the same Level he was instead of ten levels above him like most of the Boss monsters had been so far. At least he didn't need a full team to take him out. Harry took a moment to adjust which spells were equipped, and made sure that the duel settings were set to a knock out, not to the death. On a side note, this being the first time he ever dueled someone in the Game, he spent a couple Skill Points raising the level of his more regularly used spells. To his surprise, he unlocked a new spell when he did so.

Apparently, as far as the Game was concerned, each Spell had three levels; Default or the First Level, the same basic strength and form the spell took when he first learned it. Super, or the Second Level, which it turned out was just adding the word 'Maximus' to the end of the spell and giving him a more powerful from of the original spell, but also cost twice as much MP. Then there was Ultra, or the Max Level, which he found out by raising his Stupefy twice, actually changed the spell entirely, making it a Silent Variation that always hit unless blocked by the Ultra Protego. Doing that to all of his Spells would make it so he never had any Skill Points to spend on raising his Skills and Abilities, and the bonuses he got from those far outweighed the ability to cast unbeatable charms and jinxes. Still, he did go ahead and raise the three spells he used above all others; Stupefy, Protego, and Leviosa. The latter was more of a utility spell than truly useful in battle, but he wasn't kidding about using it above all others.

He won the duel, it was the talk of the school for about a day, and then he started taking on 'Jobs' under his new Title of 'Quidditch: Gryffindor Seeker', which is to say that he had Quidditch Training every day. It cut into his time looking for cheat codes and doing general quests, but it kept him busy and from getting frustrated with things. After the Event, besides adding Quidditch to his schedule, things resumed back into the same pattern that had begun to emerge. Then Halloween came around and a new Event started up, as he suspected it would.

This time, thankfully, Hermione was already his Friend and she and Ron were getting on... well OK. About the same as ever, but there certainly was none of the animosity that had been present originally. Except it wasn't Hermione Ron 'partnered' with in Charms that day. It was weird because usually 'class' was Harry going around and the Professors testing him. Today, he wasn't even noticed, and it was more like he was watching a movie as Ron was shown how to properly enunciate and cast the Leviosa charm by _Willow Rosenberg_! Save that it was a completely different girl, and that he said she was a loser instead of saying she had no friends, it was the same thing with Hermione all over again.

Having no knowledge of the unknown NPC, save her name, her stats, and that she was best friends with Xander Harris, Harry was at a loss. Ultimately, he decided to ignore Ron for the rest of the day, and instead tried to track down Xander Harris so they could find his friend together. Xander Harris, as it turned out, was in Slytherin. Harry didn't let that stop him.

When Harry finally caught up to him and explained why he was looking for him, he received a warning that he was in some kind of Charisma Check and the consequences of failing would be Xander going from RL8 "Friend" to RL1 "Enemy". He ignored it, his only concern at that point was to keep _anyone_ , Willow especially, from being killed by the troll that evening, which meant finding her and keeping her out of that first floor and at the Halloween Feast with the rest of them. If only he knew a Locator spell, but that was typically Sixth Year material in Charms!

Wait a minute...

It took a bit, some of it spent reading through his Grimoire at character stats, but eventually Harry found everyone with the Puzzler ability that he met and with Xander's help, who he'd convinced to stay RL8 simply by stressing that while he disagreed with Ron – his priority was finding and making sure Willow knew that her friends did not consider her a loser by any stretch, got them all together and presented them with the Puzzle of learning and teaching them a spell to find Willow before the Halloween Feast that evening. Then Wednesday calmly – or would that be monotonely? – informed them that Willow was in her room crying her eyes out, but not literally.

So she wasn't in danger of the troll, but that didn't make it right. Harry went, found Ron, dragged him in front of Xander and then asked Wednesday to please get Willow. The redhead witch from America entered the room like she'd just been around the corner, but Harry just blamed it on the Game. He then calmly – or monotonely – explained to Ron that he wanted the red haired wizard to apologize to her and mean it. He also explained the consequences of not apologizing and why he was doing it, that he would make Ron his 'Enemy' unless he apologized and that he would do the same for anybody he called friend, that if somebody, even his own parents and last living relative were to hurt Ron the way Ron had hurt Willow, he would strike a blood oath stating that person was not his family but his enemy. Ron immediately apologized and swore that he meant the apology and he never wanted to hurt the girl, he was just frustrated and angry and spoke without thinking, and they let him carry on for a while before Willow finally stopped him and gave the boy a hug, silencing his self-recriminations. Then she gave Harry a hug and he received multiple Alerts that RLs had been raised across the board. He still had them find and teach him the Locator spell.

Quirrell showed up halfway through the Feast, screaming about troll _s_ in the dungeon. As in more than one. He then was given the Event Quest, which, as it turned out, was a Team Dungeon Quest, which is to say it was more fighting that running around collecting and doing things. Still, always better to have at least one high level Puzzler on a Team, he'd learned that the hard way. Quest was straight forward enough. Instead of sending everybody to their Common Rooms, and the Professors going straight to the Dungeons, Professors Dumbledore and Quirrell kept everyone in the Great Hall, and then sent Harry and his Team down to the Dungeons to take care of all the trolls.

Stupid Game.

He chose the Blackrose sisters this time, as well as Zatanna, and because Willow had the highest of all the Puzzler levels, and they had the Link Ability, he chose her and Xander to round it out. And since both Zatanna and Tarot had the Attack Bonus, that changed their team name from Team Mage to Team Battle Mage! It allowed for new and different Abilities for the lot of them, not just him and Xander, with the Command and Sacrifice Abilities.

The reason Link was so important, and it was awesome that the sisters had that for themselves as well, was because it allowed Harry to take unique advantage of something called 'Combo Attacks' and coupled with some of the Battle Mage abilities he was confident in their ability to handle the trolls. Until he found out there were _over a hundred of them_!

They had to keep moving in order to avoid being swarmed, and more than once Harry used the new Ability 'Escape' to bring them back to the Great Hall to rest before going out all over again. Still, it gave them all loads of experience... well, gave him experience as they all matched with his level and experience no matter what. Not to mention Skill Points and various other rewards from looting the dead troll bodies. Plus they were whittling them down. So while it probably took him longer than what technically should have been possible, (it had been almost ten at night when Quirrell showed up and the Team had been fighting non-stop for nearly ten hours straight) as far as the teachers and student body were concerned he and his friends were only gone for moments at a time and every time they left the Great Hall to fight trolls it was like it was the first time all over again and still nobody so much as blinked at it. The disconnection with reality just drove home how much Harry really regretted his decision to do this.

Unfortunately, there was no way to quit and as absolutely weird as his life had become, he was having fun. Well... most of the time.

Finally, 99 percent of the trolls were either gone, dead, or removed from the Castle (he never asked where those portals Raven sent them through went to) and there was only one troll left. And of course it was a Boss Fight. He leveled up who and what he could, wasting a couple Skill Points to level up one of his Spells that could be useful in a fight, and then walked right into it. They got beat within the first ten minutes.

Only good thing about trolls, even a troll boss - they don't use the Killing Curse, and apparently Game Madam Pomphrey can heal pretty much everything short of that. Next time around, he went with Team Familiar, well actually the Game called them Team Magic Familiar, but basically Harry made sure to equip everyone he knew that had a Familiar and the Familiar Skill, giving them pretty much double the numbers. Unfortunately that turned out to be himself, Sabrina, Neville, Tarot, and Nanoha (who he'd finally managed to get to RL7 with by learning Japanese in an earlier Quest), and Sabrina and Tarot's Familiars, Salem and Pooka respectively, were more support/chaos types and would not participate in the actual battle. Also, Nanoha's Familiar turned out to be a Ferret that gave a Defense bonus and mostly shielded the group or cast restraining chains on the troll, but couldn't actually do any worthwhile damage, unlike Midnight and Trevor. They lasted thirty minutes that round and only got the troll's HP down by about a quarter.

Harry began to suspect somebody had raised the level on him, but he doubted it would make much difference. He knew they'd lucked out the first time against the troll, and that was mostly just dumb luck. But this was starting to get bloody ridiculous!

He tried a few other variations of Teams, unconsciously avoiding bringing Ron or Hermione in on any of them, and each and every time the troll would kick their butts and send them either to the Infirmary, or the Great Hall. Then he started running around on his own, not able to raise his level any further, but getting some 'experience' in his Spells, which increased their effectiveness, even without adding Skill Points to them. He actually lost count of how many times he fought that troll in the end. He went to the Infirmary at the end of every fight, but he managed to hurt the Boss monster a little bit more every time. By the time he was getting the troll's HP down by a quarter every time, he tried collecting a Team again, still not choosing Hermione or Ron.

They managed, barely at that, to get its HP down to half, and the upper half at that.

Just to see what would happen after that, Harry ripped apart one of the suits of armor and grabbed its sword. Though it was bigger than the Sword of Gryffindor, the only other sword Harry had ever really wielded, he could still manage it. To his amazement though, he now had the Title of 'Thief' and the sword had somehow been equipped, replacing his wand and putting the magic item in his Inventory. He lasted half as long as he usually did against the troll, but did twice as much damage as he ever did alone with his wand. Harry immediately resolved to keeping the sword, but unfortunately when he woke up in the Infirmary, it was back with the armor he'd taken it from. Not liking that he was labeled a thief just because of that (he'd done plenty of other things that should have made him a thief, not the least of which is stealing from a vault in Gringotts!) he went to Professor McGonagall and asked her for a sword. She took one of the dinner knives from the Feast, and handed it to him after transfiguring it into a short sword, more in line with the size he remembered the Sword of Gryffindor being. It was very rough though, and when he checked the items stats, he wasn't surprised to see that it had less attack power than the stolen sword had.

He went around and had some NPCs with Smithing skills sharpen and overall improve the quickly made blade where they could, and even had Professor Flitwick do what he could with it. While it still wasn't * _as_ * powerful as the other sword in the end, he could swing it faster and move easier with it than he could with the long sword. The troll still beat him in the end, but he had very nearly killed it in return. If it were real life, it could be said that he did as there would have been no way for it to survive the injuries he'd inflicted on it. By the same token, he'd been 'beaten' by the troll so many times now it was just ridiculous how he _hadn't_ been permanently killed by it.

After three more attempts, Harry realized that despite the Game's weird changing of reality, he hadn't really slept in... days it seemed like. So, rather than go back to the Great Hall or grab his sword - the transfigured one stayed in his Inventory - he just pulled the covers over him and went to sleep there in the Infirmary. When he woke up, he realized, with a sad revelation, what he'd been doing wrong.

Forming another team, just him, Hermione and Ron, Team Golden Trio went to face the Troll Boss. They beat it inside of ten minutes, Ron throwing stuff at the troll's head with Wingardium Leviosa, Hermione restricting the Boss's movements better than Nanoha's Ferret could, and Harry with his sword and heavy attack spells. That is when Harry began to suspect that filling his Team to capacity every time might not be the best idea after all.

Sure, more wands meant more damage and more bonuses, but it also slowed them down and the Command spell only let him issue three commands per, and issuing new commands overrode the old ones. With just the minimum number of Team members, he usually had one command left over, so to speak, and could use it without overriding previous orders. Also, unlike with the large group, when it was just him and two others, those two typically responded faster and more intelligently to the situation _without_ him having to say anything. Not to mention the names got more imaginative depending on who he partnered with.

Him, Hermione and Ron; Team Golden Trio, with the Balance Team Bonus, as well as his Attack, Defense, and MP bonuses and Hermione's Intelligence Bonus. There were no other bonuses besides those, but something... was different with them. They just... worked well together, he and Ron switching between attack and defense as easily as anything, and Hermione running interference and providing the assist for both of them exactly when needed.

Him, Tarot and Raven; New Black Rose Coven, with the same singular bonuses they provided, Tarot Attack and MP, Raven Defense and MP, him Attack, Defense, MP and Balanced. To his immense surprise, the first time he tried (after Halloween) teaming up with the sisters, he found they each had a "Costume" like Zatanna did. Well, not exactly like Zatanna's, but darn close in several ways. Tarot even had her own sword she could pull out of the ether and even cast spells with! Even more surprising, they were the only Team so far that he'd found he could wield * _both_ * his wand and a sword at the same time with!

Him, Xander and Willow; Team Scooby, same individual bonuses, but _different_ Team Abilities! Track Undead in particular caught his eye, but there hadn't been much opportunity to try it out yet. Demonic Protection, however, yeah that Ability was dead useful, no pun intended. They also worked together almost as well as the Golden Trio team-up did.

Him, Sabrina and Nanoha; Magical Teens. That was a surprising team-up in the first place, but aside from all of them having Familiars, he couldn't see how they warranted a special name like that. The bonuses were no different, the Abilities were the same, and they worked together as well as they did when part of larger teams. But the name made Harry curious. In casual conversation, he sometimes heard Sabrina referred to, specifically, as a "teenage witch", which was very odd, but easily overlooked. Nanoha, in her native language, didn't call herself a 'witch' but a "mahou shojo", which Harry's education of her native language told him literally translated into "magical girl". Since Harry was neither a 'witch' nor a 'girl', but was soon to be a teenager himself, he supposed from that point of view the Team name made sense. He wondered if maybe they might be able to unlock actual Team Abilities or Skills if he managed to raise his RL with the both of them.

Finally, the last entitled team he'd discovered so far, him, Amelia, Rory *and* Rose; Team Who. The Team Abilities and Skills that came out of that made virtually any secret or puzzle in the entire castle practically childsplay. It wouldn't be a Team he would use in any sort of Battle, but for running around the Castle trying to find Secret Areas and hidden items and whatnot, they were perfect. Originally, he'd intended to just put together Amy and Rose, but before he knew it, Rory was partnered with Amy and the team was being called Team Who. He wondered who this person Amy and Rose were destined to meet was and why he was important enough the Game had made mention of him at all.

After the Halloween Event, the next Event was the first Quidditch Match of the season. Harry created an extra Save right before he went down to the Quidditch Pitch. It was fully his intention to come back and play through this any and every time he got too stressed out from the Game. A game like Quidditch, not even the Game could turn that into a boring repetition. It was looking like this was going to be the only spot of random fun he had to look forward to for a while.

It was as fun as he remembered. Even the part where Quirrellmort tried to hex his broom, which he made sure to make more difficult by flitting all over the Pitch, never staying still for longer than absolutely necessary. And every time he felt his broom give a little shake, he always made sure to fly into the sun so _nobody_ would be able to keep their eye on him, no matter who they were or what they used.

It was almost a shame honestly, he had six and a half years experience playing Quidditch in the Seeker position. The Slytherin Seeker, who he didn't even remember the name of, just that he was a Fourth Year and very big, barely had two. Also he was as slow as a brick thrown from the space shuttle and half as maneuverable. Harry was literally flying circles around him, not to mention the other players, running interference for the Gryffindor Chasers, blocking shots for Wood when he was blind-sided by Bludgers, and easily outracing each of the iron balls when they were thrown at him. Compared to Dobby's enchanted missile, the standard Bludger was easy to get around. Well, for Harry that is. Half the time he had the Slytherin Beaters hitting their own teammates when they'd been aiming for him all along.

In the end, Gryffindor won 550 to 10, which Slytherin only got because somebody called foul on Harry's antics and then Slytherin fouled Wood to make the goal. And he didn't have to swallow the Snitch either!

What was really cool was he got to choice pick some new Skills related to his Quidditch position after it was all over with. Still, just to prove that he could do it, a day or two after having won the game, he saved again, and then Loaded the save point he'd made before the game and played through it anew. Then, after having won it all over again, this time keeping Slytherin from getting _any_ points, he loaded his original game without saving, and resumed where he'd been. Then he did it again in the middle of the week after a particularly frustrating puzzle that took him the better part of the day to solve, just to prove he could. After having proof that he could play the same Quidditch game as many times as he wanted in the future, he felt better about his situation, if only a bit, and held off on doing it until points at which he felt particularly stressed.

After that, the next major Event was Christmas time. Having had enough of the Dursleys for one lifetime, let alone two, Harry made sure to remain at Hogwarts for the holiday season. Unfortunately, starting from the end of December 1st, it seemed he'd begun some event called "25 Days of Christmas" that had an Event Level Quest _for each and *every* *SINGLE* *_ _DAY_ _*_! So when he got stuck on either a near impossible puzzle or a particularly tough Boss monster or an infuriatingly stressful quest of one sort or another, he could not move on to the next until he'd beaten it! Those "twenty-five" days wound up taking the equivalent of a whole extra year to finally get past them all.

The last one, of course, on the 26th, involved the Mirror of Erised. First time he saw it, Harry destroyed the blasted thing, which immediately gave him a Game Over and had him start from his last check point... three days previous. Harry made sure from that point on to *SAVE* after finishing each Quest. Even the small ones.

Ultimately, it culminated in Harry finally getting his Invisibility Cloak back and gaining an assortment of new titles, jobs, Skills, and a very small handful (read: "3") of new Abilities. He also had *that* conversation with Professor Dumbledore, which he really didn't see the point of. Although, those 'Mirror Monsters' he had to face while obtaining his last Ability of 'Untrained Amateur Occlumancy Defense Lvl 1', were different, so it broke up the deja-vu-ness of the whole thing. After the end of the Epic Quest, as he privately dubbed the "25 Days of Christmas" thing, he had about three and a half days of almost peaceful monotony.

On the New Year, another Event Quest started... in the form of helping Hagrid protect the secret of his new pet dragon. It was different than the others so far, in that instead of having to complete it before the end of the day, or keeping him from moving on to the next day until he'd completed the Event Objectives, * _this_ * Event took place over several weeks. So it was more like an extra set of Jobs that he had to do alongside all the other daily Quests available to him. Since most of it was just collecting supplies and doing research for the half-giant so he wouldn't have to, that's pretty much all it was really. The dragon destined to be called Norberta was still in her egg, so all there was to do was to do research for the future raising of the dragon, and keep the fire warm, and stock up on brandy and blood and other dragon treats.

Nevertheless, Harry couldn't help remembering what had actually happened and how devastated Hagrid was when the dragon had to be sent away. Fortunately, he had a solution for that. Harry was a Familiar Grandmaster. If he claimed the dragon as a Familiar, and there was nothing to say he couldn't do that, then he could keep it around the school and 'allow' Hagrid to take care of its basic needs and raising. But first the dragon had to hatch successfully.

Thankfully there were no other major Quests or Events on the horizon, the next he could foresee was the next Quidditch match in early February, until then he only had 'Jobs' and the hatching the dragon egg event to deal with. So, instead he turned his attention to hunting down the bloody cheat codes. Apparently the codes were hidden away in Secret Areas, and were identified by being etched runes in stone, metal, or wood. They were also split into an unknown number of pieces.

In order to complete the codes, he had to find all the runes _for that code_ , which could only be identified by confirming the runes were on the same kind of wood, same piece of metal, or same type of stone. Then, once he had all the runes, and thankfully they were 'written' in his Grimoire so he didn't have to go around collecting pieces of rock, metal and sticks, the real work began. Each set of runes were encoded, and if he'd taken Ancient Runes originally he would also know that depending on the rune, it could stand for a letter, a number, or an entire word. Apparently the Cheat Code was only valid in English Alphanumerical lettering and numbering. Harry needed to figure out how to attain the Puzzler skill and raise it.

Well, that, and he had to learn how to read runes of course.

So far he'd found dozens of little plaques in all sorts of Secret Areas all over the place. According to his Grimoire, he'd even found a couple at Privet Drive, though he couldn't recall exactly what or where. The problem was, despite having so many runes to work from, he had only completed * _two_ * of the sets, and he hadn't been able to translate them yet either. And because it was a _cheat_ code, those with the Puzzler ability he relied on for most everything wouldn't, or couldn't touch them. Whenever he showed them the rune sets, whether in person or by writing them down independent from his Grimoire, it was like they couldn't even see it and when he forced them to touch the runes, they just kind of... shut down. So he was on his own, for now.

Aside from seeking out more of the rune codes, he spent his time collecting/finding/discovering all the "Hidden Secrets" of the many Secret Areas he had access to. Some were just caches of extra game goodies; Skill Points, CF Cards, candies of various sorts (which he'd discovered boosted HP and MP depending on the candy), and EXP. Occasionally, very rarely, like one out of every ten of them, there would be one Hidden Secret the contained something along the lines of Midnight. Not an actual Familiar, so far he still only had the two, but a piece of Equipment that was one-of-a-kind and couldn't be bought, traded, or made by anything else available to him in the Game. He'd even gotten another mode for his Omnilens out of one of these, letting him see and track auras in conjunction with his X-Ray mode!

Therefore, amidst taking care of the dragon egg, searching for new Secret Areas, and doing odd Jobs for funds, Rewards, and EXP, he also sought to learn how to translate the cheat codes he had and managed to complete. Finally he stumbled upon the idea of just getting those that could already read and translate runes... to teach _him_ how to read and translate runes. As a result, it earned him a new Title, and added another Job to his list, this one to study and memorize and be tested on his understanding of runes, the only reward of which was a point to the Skill which made it easier to read and understand them, but also guaranteed that the next tests would be even more difficult, and if he failed even one question, he would have to start over on it, though it never told him if he'd missed any until after he'd finished it entirely, even if the one question he missed was the second out of one hundred.

Unfortunately he didn't get his mastery in reading runes before the dragon hatched, but that was a long term goal anyway.

It was as he was racing down to Hagrid's hut, the note from the friendly giant in hand about the egg hatching, that Harry remembered other... consequences from this little side adventure of his First Year at Hogwarts. He and Hermione had snuck the sleeping dragon up to the tallest tower and handed it off to Charlie, Ron's Dragon Keeper brother, and then been caught by Malfoy on their way back from the errand, having forgotten the Invisibility Cloak that let them get there undetected in the first place. The primary consequence of this, other than the loss of points, had been he and Malfoy given detention together with Hagrid. To investigate... to investigate the unicorn deaths!

He'd forgotten about the unicorns being killed by Voldemort/Quirrell! He'd also forgotten about meeting the centaurs the night he'd almost been caught/killed by the cloaked Professor!

Well, he thought as he entered the overly warm wooden hut, I can deal with that later. Right now, I have a Familiar to claim and train!

Harry and Hagrid were the only ones in the hut, the dragon egg jumping in the fire, the air inside hot, but without the suffocating humidity. Just as the first time, when the first cracks actually appeared, Hagrid pulled the hot egg from the fire and brought it over to the table. A few more minutes of rattling and breaking, and the baby dragon had struggled its way out of the egg it was born from. The moment the dragon was still and breathing, it looked up at the two present and Harry got a screen prompt, just as he'd expected.

* **FAMILIAR: Dragon** *

Species: Hebridean Black

 _"The Hebridean Black has dark rough scales, ridges along its back, a tail tipped with an arrow-shaped spike, has bright purple or red eyes, is more aggressive than the other dragon species native to the British Isles and can grow to be up to thirty feet long. You have an open slot for a Familiar. Would You Like To Acquire This Familiar?"_

 **YES/NO**

Harry smiled and selected, "Yes." He instantly got another screen.

* _Would You Like To Name This Familiar?_ *

 **YES/NO**

"Uh, sure, yes," he said, confused as this hadn't happened before. Then again, all the other Familiars he'd encountered before now already had names. The next screen that came up was just a 'screen' and a blinking cursor. It didn't take him long to realize it was waiting for him to speak the dragon's new name.

Since it wasn't a Norwegian Ridgeback, and Harry had little clue as to why that had changed at all, he didn't feel right calling the dragon 'Norbert' or 'Norberta' or whatever. And if he trusted Hagrid's tendencies towards names, he'd wind up with a menagerie of cutsie names like Fluffy and Norbert the Norwegian dragon.

Hebridean Black, huh? Native to the Hebrides Islands of Scotland, if he recalled correctly from his Creature classes. As far as the Hebrides themselves, he knew about as much as any schoolchildren are taught in their elementary geography classes about their country and the surrounding areas. He hadn't memorized the names of every island of the Brittish Isles archipelago, but he recalled that one of the larger isles of that area had a name that was close to a real name one might give to a real person.

"Lewis," he said, and was pleased to see it was even spelled correctly. The screen asked to confirm, and he did. The next thing after that, the world unfroze and Hagrid was staring down at the dragon with tear-filled eyes.

"Harry, tis the most beautiful thing I ever did see," Hagrid spoke, choked up with emotion. The dragon was now taking its first steps and looking to and fro, though its eyes always came back to rest on Harry.

"What's that, Hagrid?" Harry asked, mostly to be polite.

"Well," Hagrid answered, wiping his tears and preparing the baby dragon's first meal, "it may not be as clear to you, but it is plenty clear to me that this dragon here, you and he belong together. I think I'll call him Lewis. After that big island up North where he came from. But it would be a great honor to me, Harry, if you would consider calling Lewis here your very own. I know you got Hedwig and that cat already, but he just seems to have taken a liking to yeh."

Harry smiled and nodded, watching as his newest Familiar feasted on the venisen and brandy Hagrid had prepared. "Of course Hagrid," he answered. "I think you're right. As long as you do me a huge favor in return, all right?"

"Anything, Harry!" Hagrid immediately complied.

"Help me take care of Lewis here?" Harry said, a warm smile on his face. "I'm still just a student, and I've got classes and everything, plus you know more about dragons and raising them than I could probably ever learn."

"I... oh Harry," Hagrid was getting choked up again. "You've got yerself a deal!"

After that, Harry was introduced to yet another feature of the game. The closest comparison he had to it was when he stole and played that Pokemon game Dudley got and stopped playing a day into his diet in the summer between Third and Fourth years. Unlike Hedwig and Midnight, which he'd gotten both during the tutorial, and had come to him with the same level he did, Lewis was basically at Level 0 the moment the egg hatched and Level 1 only after having lived through his first day of life as an accomplishment. Harry now being at somewhere around Level 23, had to bring the young dragon up to his level or higher before he could use or equip him for the stats bonus, let alone as a Battle Companion. As for any Skills or Abilities, the only Ability Lewis had, as a dragon was 'Flying' and 'Firebreathing' and that was it. No skills, no extra Abilities, nothing. He was also warned, via Hagrid (which was very weird to have NPCs telling him about the Game), that if Lewis had not learned any basic skills by the time he reached Level 5, he wasn't going to learn _any_ , let alone the more advanced skills potentially available to dragons.

So making sure to save the game beforehand, Harry spent a few days with Hagrid and Lewis doing nothing but trying to teach the young dragon various skills. He was starting to get worried when the infant dragon reached Level 2 and had only learned one skill, and that was 'Language: English', and no actual Abilities at all. Then, while filling in his quota of daily Jobs and one or two other Quests, Harry noticed a new NPC hanging around the school grounds.

Going up to him, he recognized him as Professor Kettleburn, the original Care of Magical Creatures Professor, before Hagrid got the position in Harry's Third Year. Going up to the Professor, Harry was offered with a screen, asking which Skill and/or Ability he wanted his Familiars trained in. That, very quickly, solved the issue of making Lewis a valuable and worthwhile Familiar, not to mention netted him some non-standard Skills and Abilities for Hedwig and Midnight.

By the time he, Hermione and Ron would have originally been planning on how to smuggle the dragon out of Hogwarts and back to Romania, Lewis reached Level 5 and grew to just over five feet in length, his (and it was confirmed that Lewis was most definitely indeed a male) wingspan half a foot less than that. He also tended to hang around Hagrid's, but thanks to getting and leveling up the Battle Companion skill early, whenever Harry entered battle, no matter who, what, when or where, the black dragon was there alongside Hedwig and Midnight. A real bonus was that he'd also netted the Link Skill/Ability for each of his Familiars, so now all three of them could do a variety of combo attacks.

Once that had been squared away, a new Event appeared just around the corner. This one where the final rewards were listed as unknown. But basically instead of it being assigned as a detention, Hagrid and Professor Kettleburn and even Mister Filch approached Harry with a Quest to track down the culprit behind the unicorn killings and find a way to put a stop to it.

This was probably the most convoluted Quest he'd come across yet, as a matter of fact. Most Quests, even for the Events he'd gone through so far, they had maybe four or five steps; go to the Quest giver and get it, they send him to do an errand and he goes and does it and then goes back to the Quest giver, who may then either end the Quest, or send him to someone else who will give another job or errand to run. The Events made it so that instead of two or three extra people for more errands, he went to ten or twelve and sometimes had to go on a scavenger hunt to find all of something across several areas. This one...

This one was more along the lines of a dungeon, which he discovered is what the train was with the Quest to retrieve Trevor. Except... except it was like each of the 'jobs' and 'errands' the various Quest givers gave him to do, were nothing BUT dungeons! Each with their very own Boss Fight! And more than once he had to go through those dungeons multiple times and fight the same Boss monster multiple times in order to complete just that one part of the Quest!

The only good thing about it was all the EXP he was gaining went towards catching Lewis up with his other Familiars and increasing all of their Skills and Abilities. By the time he eventually, heavy emphasis on _eventually_ , found himself in the Forbidden Forest at night searching for an injured unicorn, he was somewhere around Level 40 and Lewis was as common a feature in battle as Hedwig, Midnight, and whatever Team he collected, usually Hermione and Ron or Xander and Willow. Nearly twenty levels for just one Event. And every bit of it was absolutely worked for and then some!

As it happened, Harry managed to get to the unicorn while it was still alive. Thankfully, one of the earlier dungeons had left him with an excess of healing potions and he didn't hesitate to use it on the injured creature, and cast every Familiar/Team healing spell he had in his arsenal. Then came Quirrellmort, aka the Boss Fight while protecting the unicorn. He almost lost that fight too. But as said previously, he was a lot more experienced since the Troll Fight. He also had plenty more experience fighting Voldemort since his First Year and since he chose the fighting style based on real life instead of Turn or Strategy based, that experience was of some actual benefit to him, and then some.

When it was over and Harry and his Party had succeeded in driving off the wraith-possessed Professor, not that the Game acknowledged him as such, he was _finally_ presented with the Rewards to the Epic Quest. Not the least of which, but possibly the most surprising, was getting Lightfoot as a Familiar. Lightfoot being the unicorn that he'd just saved the life of. Lightfoot was also the first Familiar he'd encountered whose level was _higher_ than his own! The consequences being that until Harry reached the unicorn's level, said unicorn could not join in Battle, or offer any aid, but his stats still applied to Harry's own, unlike with Lewis's until he'd leveled the dragon up.

Other Rewards included, but were not limited to, Skill Points, enough EXP to level up right away, rare items, books and scrolls that would teach him new skills or raise his current ones without having to spend Skill Points, and an Increased RL with all the team members he'd ever teamed up with during the entire Epic Quest, no matter if they were in the final battle or not. In some cases, that was more valuable than getting a Level 67 Unicorn Familiar. For starters, both Hermione and Ron, not to mention Xander, Willow, Nanoha, Sabrina, and Zatanna, were now RL10 "Faithful", and when that happened... something changed.

In the case of the others, those he'd never met before and had never known, there wasn't any change, they still treated each other the same and other than the fact that he could now ask anything of them, where he couldn't before, nothing was different with them. But with Hermione and Ron...

It was subtle. As subtle as what made them clearly *not* Hermione and Ron in the first place. It was... it was like a switch had been flipped, or a veil had been lifted. Every one of the NPCs was _absolutely_ * _NOT_ * aware of the Game or his role within it. It was a foregone conclusion that he'd gotten used to months ago. But after getting to RL10 with them, he began to notice the two of them... _noticing_ things. Things that they'd never so much as given a second glance toward before. They also acted more... well, more naturally with him. More like 11 and 12 year old Ron and Hermione had after they dealt with Hagrid's dragon and served their detention in the Forbidden Forest. They still weren't _his_ Ron and Hermione, but they were more... human.

After coming to this realization, he noticed the same thing with the others he had RL10 with. He couldn't say he knew any of them well enough to know what they were really like, certainly not as well as he knew Hermione and Ron, but they too were more personable and human and... and _real_ than they had been before.

Not sure how to take this change, Harry just let things ride for a few days after. He went through his routine of taking on class 'Jobs' and daily Quests and refocused on raising his level to match his new Familiar's as soon as possible. Fortunately another set of Event Quests were right around the corner to help him with that. AKA, End-of-Year Exams.

He wasn't exactly worried. It was just First Year after all.

Famous last words. Stupid Game.

He didn't know about the others, the NPCs, but Harry's End-of-Year Exams were just as brutal as he imagined NEWTs to be. Only instead of hours long tests and relentless practicals, he was verbally quizzed for those hours and then made to go through dungeon after dungeon after dungeon. Each with Bosses on par with the Troll, and he faced them * _alone_ *, not with a Team. Hell, he couldn't even call on his Familiars!

Between all that, and thankfully he got 10 EXP points for every question answered successfully, by the time he finished the last "Exam", he was at Level 75! That's how absolutely brutal those things were, keeping in mind it is an _extra_ thousand between levels now than the one previous, and for every ten levels an additional 100 tagged onto that, so it was more like 75,700 to go from Level 74 to Level 75! And he'd been at Level 58 at the beginning of the Exam Quests!

Still, it was worth it, as by completing the Exams, he no longer had to complete all the Class Jobs as part of his daily objectives, and just as with the tutorial, failure to complete even one objective was the same Game Over as losing his life in a battle. Which had happened, but thankfully he had saved games and check points now, so it was more annoying than devastating.

Then the most impossible thing of all happened to him. He found, according to the Game, *ALL* of the Hidden Secrets of one Area within Hogwarts. Which was a surprise, as of all the Secret Areas he'd come across, he typically managed to clean them out within a day of finding them in the first place. As it turns out, the 'Areas' were classified as places like "Gryffindor Tower", "Great Hall", "Hagrid's Hut", and the "Quidditch Stadium", and each and every one of them were like Mrs. Figg's place, and the Dursleys, which were on Privet Drive. So while there might be a number of Secret Areas in any Area, there were dozens if not hundreds of Areas in any Location, as with Hogwarts. So while he by no means had managed to even access all the Areas in Hogwarts, apparently for Hagrid's Hut and the Quidditch Stadium however, he had indeed uncovered every Secret Area and all the Hidden Secrets of those two Areas.

Apparently, by discovering all the Hidden Secrets of more than one Area at any Location, that got him something called an 'Achievement' and that came with its own big Rewards. In this case, he got to choose between more EXP, 100 Skill Points, or a Ultra Rare Item. It was actually called that by the way, "Ultra Rare Item".

Since every Rare Item he'd come across had been worth its weight in Skill Points and EXP combined, he chose to receive that which was undoubtedly something he would be offered only once and then never again. Turned out it was another Familiar. To be specific, it was a Phoenix Egg. Fake Game history aside, Dumbledore found Fawkes with the egg one day and by all appearances it seemed to be quite inert and so as a "Reward" for services to the school, the Headmaster gave the boy what he thought was a fossilized trinket or paperweight. Except that the moment the egg was in Harry's hands, it lit up with light and hatched right there, the egg shells disappearing into his inventory, and the chick reminding him of Fawkes on his Burning Day. He, of course, claimed the Familiar instantly and named the chick (it was a girl) Lillith.

Rather than Professor Kettleburn, Harry went straight to Fawkes to have Lillith trained. He wasn't disappointed as his baby phoenix had an equal number of Skills and Abilities by Level 2 that each of his other Familiars had at their current levels! And that was more than doubled at each successive level until they were locked in when she reached Level 5, which was further signified as being her first Burning Day.

Put a whole new spin on the term "that time of the month".

Fortunately, a phoenix reached 'full maturity' no later than a day after rising from their ashes, and stayed at peak health until only two or three days before their next Burning Day, which would be signified by them seeming to age by the hour. So for twenty-five days of the month she would be perfectly fine and able to help out with no inconvenience whatsoever. But for those 4-5 days around her Burning Day, all of Lillith's stats got removed from his, in fact he actually took a more significant hit to his stats than if he'd never had a Phoenix as a Familiar in the first place. Thankfully it wasn't that big of a hit, but Harry had to be careful he wasn't caught in a Boss Fight unawares on those days.

He did have a new Ability of his own, it came about when Lillith reached his Level and joined up as a Battle Companion. It was called "Bank the Fire", and it allowed him to delay Lillith's Burning Day, but at the cost of doubling the amount of time she was 'unavailable' per day and also double the cost to him for the same amount of time. He hadn't used it yet and couldn't see him using it any time soon, but the sad fact of the matter was that he could indeed see the need for it nevertheless.

By the time Lillith was raised up, it was the end of May and the beginning of June, and Harry was over Level 80. Though originally, Voldemort/Quirrell had tried for the stone the day after his last exam, that was just because it happened to be the same day Dumbledore was out of the castle. The Game, apparently, had decided to allow Harry some time to catch his breath and not have to jump from event to event to event. Nevertheless, on June 6th, only two weeks from leaving for the summer, Dumbledore was finally called away. This was signified by Harry's Objectives being nothing but a list of Event Quests, telling him all he needed to know about what was coming.

He'd decided to go with a full Team, so after recruiting every RL10 Friend he had, started seeking out all of the Quests listed in his Objectives. First up, help Dumbledore find his socks (yeah, he had to do a double-take on that one too) and other basic supplies for his annual ICW meeting in Belgium. After that, they/he had to help all the Professors with other errands around the school, which were basically minor prep courses in how to pass each of their traps/obstacles in the Third Floor Corridor. Harry had no doubt that the Game was going to blow what he remembered of the obstacles obscenely out of proportion in some exaggerated fashion of some kind or another.

When it was all said and done, he found he _still_ had to sneak out of Gryffindor Tower, collect his Team, all under his Invisibility Cloak, and then make their way to the Third Floor Corridor. The Quest/Event was given automatically the moment they entered it, proving it a Dungeon but at least this time he didn't need to go through some silly conversation beforehand. Keeping Fluffy asleep wasn't going to happen, Harry could see that the moment they walked in and the three-headed dog was up and prowling and _not leashed or chained down AT ALL_!

Then to his infinite surprise, Salem, of all creatures, walks up to the great beast like he's an old friend!

"Fluffy, my man, how ya been?" Salem said, trotting up to the giant three-headed dog.

All three heads looked down at the black cat and regarded him the way any dog regards a cat that walks up to it. Then the unexpected happened.

"Salem, what are _you_ doing here?" the middle head asked in a gruff, no-nonsense voice.

"Salem! Dude!" the right head called out in a voice more fitting with an American hippie.

The left head whimpered, but that could have been a dog whimper, or a pitiful scared whimper, he couldn't tell.

Harry's jaw would have been on the floor if it wasn't firmly attached. He got the sense that the others 'behind' him shared in his disbelief with their own expressions of shock. Sabrina seemed to be the only one to be mildly surprised instead of shocked out of her mind.

"You know him, Salem?" she asked her cat.

"Oh yeah, Fluffy and me go way back. That 'greek chappie' Hagrid mentioned. He's my old bookie," Salem answered with the cat version of a shrug.

Well, that settled it, Harry decided, it was a pitiful scared whimper, not a dog whimper.

"Has anybody gone down in to check the stone this evening?" Harry asked, quickly getting over his earlier shock.

"What's it to you?" the gruff middle head snapped at him.

"Because if there has, then that means it is most likely Professor Quirrell and he's going to try and steal the stone and it is my intention to go down there and stop him, either by making sure the stone stays exactly where it is, or by destroying it," he answered without hesitation.

"Dude," the right head slurred, "How'd you know it was that garlic-breath guy?"

"Grrr!" the middle head growled at it, while the left head just sighed.

"Right then, let's get going people!" Harry ordered, moving to lift the trap door.

"And where do you think you're going?" gruff-Fluffy asked, paw holding down the trap door.

Harry put his Omnilens in Scouter Mode, which had been leveled up enough now that he didn't need Booster to get as much information anymore. He smirked. "I'm not about to fight you Fluffy, Hagrid would be angry with me. But I can call upon a phoenix, a dragon, a unicorn, a kneazle, and an owl. My owl could take you in a fight, Fluffy. I'm just saying."

"Uh Harry," Salem whispered, "Not really the best idea to antagonize the _giant three-headed HELL HOUND_!"

"Who's antagonizing," Harry replied, not breaking eye-contact with the canine above him, "I'm stating a fact. Hedwig is very protective and she could literally mop the floor with him. You know she's actually a good ten levels higher than him, right?"

"Wait, seriously?" Salem gave the young wizard an incredulous look. "Remind me never to stalk that bird. Ever!"

"That's a given," he said.

"What does that have to do with me?" gruff-Fluffy growled.

"Y-y-you kn-know a-a-a d-d-dr-dra-dragon?" coward-Fluffy whimpered.

"Dude," the right head commented.

"Yes, I know a dragon," he answered. "And I merely told you so that you would know not to pick a fight with me. And I am going down there, Fluffy, and here's why." He then leaned forward and whispered into gruff's large floppy ears, quiet enough that none of the others in the room could hear him.

"Dude!" the right head jerked back upright, while the left head started whimpering like mad, its head also up and alert.

"Grr! Fine! Go on then!" gruff-Fluffy growled and backed off of the trap door.

"What did you say to him?" Salem asked as Harry opened the door.

"You don't want to know," he told him. "Trust me on that."

Down in the actual dungeon the first "level", rather than room, was the equivalent of every Herbology dungeon, Job, Quest, and plant-creature that he'd already faced throughout the whole year. It took a while to get through all of it, only basic 'locking' and 'jumping' and 'moving' puzzles blocking their way, and before too long they came to the first Boss, the all too familiar Devil's Snare that was the original challenge. Only instead of landing in the middle of it and burning their way past it, now they had to fight it and burn their way through it. Eventually, they got past them and to the next level down.

The second level was Flitwick's, and was full of charmed items, the all too familiar flying books with their razor pages, and a few other things that he'd already encountered throughout the year. More puzzles, involving a lot of teamwork and combined spell work and even different spells used in the proper order to get past it all. And the 'locking' puzzles tended to close behind them so he had to be extra careful about who he put where. It took longer than the first level, but eventually they did get to the Boss, which was a swarm of keys, which had to be defeated the same way the charmed books and other flying menaces got defeated, until the only one left was the one key needed to proceed. Needless to say, this took more than one try to get through.

Third level was McGonagall's, and unfortunately it was not just one giant chess board. It was a dungeon where absolutely anything and everything, even the ground/platforms they stood upon could transform into an enemy they would have to defeat, and even more often the enemies wandering around would transform into platforms or doors that they would need in order to proceed. Worst of all, he found himself running all over the place seeking to 'free' what were clearly giant chess pieces, both black and white, and after the final of the thirty-two pieces were 'rescued' was he finally allowed onto the giant chess board. He Commanded Ron to "win the chess game without losing ANY of the pieces that get replaced by real people" and the red haired boy did not disappoint. He lost track of how many moves it took, or how many moves between Ron making his first move and then revealing the trap he'd laid with that first move, but Ron followed his orders to the letter, not allowing any of the seven "real" players to ever be taken or so much as targeted by the opposing pieces. They moved on when yet again Ron had Harry take the Black King.

Fourth Level was supposed to be Professor Quirrell, and... it was. Now he knew where all the blasted trolls from Halloween came from. Except for them being about fifty levels stronger, it was Halloween all over again, but thankfully Harry and his Team had also been leveling up during their progress thus far, heck the creatures they had to slay on the first and third levels regenerated and even though the puzzle and Objective EXP may have been used up, they _always_ got EXP for beating enemies, just not as much. Unless you go through them a few hundred times. The trolls never stood a chance, but they did give more EXP than the transfigured chess pieces, so he made sure to go through the level a couple more times before actually facing the Boss Troll. When they breached Level 90, he finally decided to move on, beating the Troll Boss in one turn.

Fifth Level was Snape's, and there were no enemies. It was nothing but one logic puzzle after the next. If he hadn't already, Harry was sure that he could have maxed out his Puzzler Skill just from one run-through of this dungeon! In the end though, they still were faced with the row of potions. Unsurprising, the one that would let them go on was the smallest vial, barely half the amount needed for even one person, to say nothing of the other six. Then it got worse as the moment Harry approached, he was warned that he needed to unequip all his Familiars and most of his stat-enhancing gear, otherwise it would be destroyed in the flames, potion or no potion. Leaving Harry with a bit of a conundrum.

Go on alone, with little more than his wand and what he could pull off himself, or try to cheat.

Oh, who was he kidding?

"Hedwig," he called after unequipping everything that he was told to unequip. "Mail Order: Equipment, Special Delivery, activate, confirm, yes!"

The moment his snowy white owl Familiar alighted on his arm, and he activated the Skill "Mail Order", he was given a screen of what type of mail he wanted to send, and he chose Equipment. Then he activated one of Hedwig's new Abilities she'd learned from the CoMC Professor; Special Delivery, where she would absolutely deliver something and the item, whatever it was, would be used instantly. He'd often had her drop 'mail bombs' of various types on bad guys or Bosses he was having particular trouble with. This time, he set himself up as the recipient, and gave her all the equipment that he'd just taken off, and set the delivery for only a few minutes after he entered the black flames. That was the awesome part of the Special Delivery Ability, didn't matter *where* the receiver was no matter how inaccessible it was; a dungeon, a Secret Area, or even the bathroom! The item was delivered and used instantly!

He was tempted to try 'sending' his other Team mates and Familiars, but apparently that actually required the maximum level of Special Delivery, coupled with another Ability, also maxed out, and at least Level 5 of a Skill called "Personable" (a play on the word 'perishable' he was sure). Unfortunately, he still hadn't quite managed to max out the Abilities and both were needed to even train for the Personable Skill. So he was still going in alone, but at least now he wouldn't be as defenseless as the Game was trying to make him.

He walked into the black flames, after drinking the freezing potion of course, and stepped out into a very, very familiar scene. Then he watched as "he" stepped forward and acted out the scene exactly the same as it originally happened. There wasn't a bloody thing he could do to stop or change so much as a word, even when Quirrell wrapped him up in ropes. At least Hedwig arrived on time and delivered to him, the real him, not the hologram acting out his memories with the Voldemort possessed Quirrell.

After the scene had completed, with him staring into the mirror and getting the stone, things finally changed. He suddenly found himself in the spot where his copy had been, Quirrell holding him by the shoulder, the stone in his pocket, and all his equipment from Hedwig back in place. Frustrated with the lie his hologram had told, Quirrell threw him aside, but before Voldemort could hiss a warning to his host, Harry quickly Paused and pulled out his Grimoire. He confirmed all his equipment had been truly re-equiped, and then just to thumb it to the stupid Game, he put the Stone into his Unique Inventory, one of those Cheats he'd actually managed to uncover and translate had provided the means for it, allowing him to place Key Items or other special items he otherwise would have lost out on by losing a fight or failing the objectives, or even just restarting. By putting things in the Unique Inventory, theoretically he could even switch Avatars and still have the items. As a consequence, he could only put in an extremely limited number of items into it and if he went over, then one of the items at random was destroyed, never to be recovered. Besides, he doubted the Game would let him do much with the Stone anyway, certainly not all that it was vaunted to do in real life. At best it was probably just a rare item that helped with Transfiguration Skill or whatnot.

He also removed one item in particular from the Unique Inventory and went ahead and Equipped it. It was the same knife/sword that he'd "made" from Halloween, just with a lot more work on it. He'd also fully leveled up his dual-wielding Ability, allowing him to hold a sword (or other weapon) in one hand and use a wand with the other.

"Let me speak to the boy," Voldemort hissed from beneath the turban.

"But master, you're n-not st-strong enough!" Quirrell whimpered.

"I am... strong enough... for this," came the rebuke. Quirrell took off his turban.

"See what you have-urk!" Voldemort started to say, but was interrupted by the enchanted-up-the-wazoo blade flying through his open mouth and out the other side of Quirrell's head, killing the host instantly, unicorn blood or no unicorn blood.

"That was for Lightfoot and his kin," Harry stated, still ready to defend himself from what came next.

Only... it never came. Instead, a screen popped up.

* **CONGRATULATIONS!** *

YOU HAVE DEFEATED VOLDEMORT

* _Unlocked Achievments! (See Grimoire for more...)_

* _RL Level has changed! (Hermione's Parents)_

* _You have Leveled Up!_

* _You have Leveled Up!_

* _You have Leveled Up!_

* _You have Leveled Up!_

* _You have Leveled Up!_

* _You have Leveled Up!_

* _You have Leveled Up!_

* _You have Leveled Up!_

* _You have Leveled Up!_

* _You have Leveled Up!_

* _You have Reached Level 100 Before End of First Year!_

* _Unlocked New Avatars!_

Harry blinked and waved all the Alerts away. When he could see again, he found that there was no wraith-like mist coming out of Quirrell's corpse, so apparently the fight really was over. Who knew? Walking back up to the Mirror of Erised, he was surprised when instead of showing him his family, or even his friends, he saw a bunch of glowing runes in the mirror. Wait a minute!

* _You Have Discovered a New Cheat Code!_ *

UNLOCK SPECIAL 10 EARLY (1 of 10)

To his amazement, the runes lifted themselves up out of the mirror and then streamed into his Grimoire, which upon opening he found there in his list of Cheat Codes. It was only the first, but... it was a start. Wait, he stopped and looked around. If he'd gotten the Cheat Code hidden for this Avatar already, then there really wasn't a point in continuing to play it. After all, the Hint had listed which Avatars had the Cheat Codes needed for unlocking the Special 10 as the Game called them. If his objective was to unlock the Mr. Black Avatar as soon as possible, he shouldn't bother dealing with any more of this crap.

Still, he looked around one more time, saving this game while still in the middle of a dungeon probably wasn't the best idea. He walked out of the mirror room - after doing a thorough scan with his Omnilens for any Hidden Secrets of course - and rejoined his team and they Exited back to the main castle. He saved his progress, and went to bed. In the morning, he opened his Grimoire and looked at the listed options.

Looking over at the sleeping Ron, and considering saying goodbye to him and the other 'friends' he'd made, he decided not to. It wasn't like he was deleting the game. He just wasn't going to keep playing it past First Year here.

"Exit Game, Confirm, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! _YES I AM SURE I WANT TO LEAVE THE GAME_!" he screamed at the book in his hands. Just like that, he found himself back in the white space, standing in front of the living statue of the Harry James Potter avatar, now looking more like a Second Year than the him before First Year it had been before.

Stepping back from it, he turned around and found the opening screen that originally had been on the front door of 4 Privet Drive when this all began. It was just hanging there in an open spot, where there were no avatars.

\- New Game -

 **-** Load Game **-**

\- Options -

 **-** Help **-**

This time though, 'Load Game' and 'Help' weren't grayed out. Having finally unlocked the Help functions in the game, he didn't bother going to it. Instead this time he selected Load Game, just to make sure.

SAVED GAMES:

 **Save 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -** _Harry James Potter_ (Lv. 100)

 **Save 2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -** _Harry James Potter_ (Lv. 15)

 **Save 3 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -** _Harry James Potter_ (Lv. 25)

 **Save 4 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -** _Harry James Potter_ (Lv. 77)

 **Save 5 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -** [EMPTY]

 **Save 6 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -** [EMPTY]

 **Save 7 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -** [EMPTY]

 **Save 8 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -** [EMPTY]

 **Save 9 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -** [EMPTY]

 **Save 10 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -** [EMPTY]

Harry sighed in relief and backed out to the Main Menu again. It was all there, as were the Quidditch Games for the year. He may eventually overwrite the one where Snape was referee, or where Gryffindor was guaranteed the Quidditch Cup, but he planned on saving that first Quidditch Game for a long time to come.

This time he selected New Game. A new screen popped up to replace the Menu, this time it gave instructions rather than any kind of selection.

*PLEASE SELECT YOUR AVATAR*

The screen then disappeared and the hall of avatars returned to the way it had been the first time he saw it. Harry noticed that at least there were more unlocked 'living' statues this time around. Looking down at himself, he saw that he was still dressed the same as he had been in the Game just before he'd saved last. Pulling out his Grimoire, he opened up the Hints and read through which Avatars were supposed to have the Cheat Codes for the Special 10 in them somewhere. He went through the hall and searched out those names/avatars specifically.

Harry James Potter (11) - "Son of James and Lily Potter, was orphaned at 15 months, and sent by Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, and Rubeus Hagrid to live with his only living relative, Petunia Dursley. Raised like a House Elf, Harry is eager to make friends, but shy and reckless as he has no experience in social situations. Magical and Physical abilities are well balanced, a good choice for beginners, able to branch out into any specialty or maintain the balanced settings at a cost of making any significant development." Special Skills: Natural Flying Talent, Familiar, Parselmouth.

Harri Jamie Potter (11) - "Daughter of Jamie and Lillian 'Li' Potter, was orphaned at 15 months, and sent by Alba Dumbledore, Mercury McGonagall, and Ruby Hagrid to live with her only living relative, Patrick Dursley. Raised like Cinderella without the happy ending, Harri is eager to make friends, but shy and terrified of boys because of her cousin Dudley. Magical and Physical abilities are well balanced, but due to obvious differences it is advised only experienced players choose this avatar." Special Skills: Natural Flying Talent, Familiar, Parselmouth. _Unlock Requirements: Complete Tutorial._

Harry Granger (11) - "Adopted son of Dan and Emma Granger, parents of Hermione Granger. When picking their daughter up from pre-school one day, Dan and Emma noticed her playing with a young boy in rather poor clothing. After hearing young Harry's story, and witnessing how his Aunt and Uncle treated him first hand, the Grangers got the Dursleys arrested for child abuse and adopted Harry and raised him as their own. Raised by dentists with Hermione as his sister, Harry is intelligent, observant, but follows the rules regardless of the situation and is slow to trust new people. Magical abilities come more easily to this avatar, while Physical abilities take longer to level up." Special Skills: Photographic Memory, Skill Bonus: Spells, Familiar, Parselmouth. _Unlock Requirements: Attain RL:10 "Faithful" status with Hermione and RL:9 "Trustworthy" status with both her parents before graduating Hogwarts._

\- LOCKED-

Harry Black (11) - "Godson of Sirius Black, who did his duty as Godfather and took care of baby Harry when his parents were murdered by Voldemort. Raised by his father's best friend, but also the reinstated Lord Black, Harry is confident, mischievous, and well educated in all levels of Wizard Society. Magical abilities are considerably higher than Physical abilities, but there is no bonus nor detriment to either. Prerequisite of Minister Harry, Prankster Harry, and Harry Slytherin." Special Skills: Charisma+10 per level, Skill Bonus: Social, Natural Flying Talent, Familiar, Parselmouth. _Unlock Requirements: Free Sirius from Azkaban, clear his name, and learn Animagus Ability from him_ _before_ _Third Year._

\- LOCKED -

Harry Malfoy (12) - "When word got out about Harry Potter's circumstances, the Wizarding Community cried out and their most trusted member was called forth to care for their young savior. Raised by the Malfoy Family to be their secret weapon in the coming years, Harry is disillusioned towards reality and a sociopath by design, only able to express mimicry of emotion after observing others for sufficient time. Default Magical abilities far outstip Physical abilities, and there is a significant bonus on increasing Magical aligned skills over Physical ones, though no detriment to raising Physical abilities at all. Prerequisite of Harry Slytherin." Special Skills: Magic+10 per level, Skill Bonus: Social, Skill Bonus: Assassin, Skill bonus: Politics, Familiar, Parselmouth, Extra Training. _Unlock Requirements: Unlock 'Harry Black' and play through First Year with Draco Malfoy as Best Friend or at least RL:9 "Trustworthy" status for 90% of that time._

\- LOCKED -

Runaway Harry (10) - "Rather than deal with the crap he had to put up with at the Dursleys, Harry decided to try his luck at either finding his real parents or just going it alone. To his immense surprise, roughing it on the streets was infinitely preferable to living with his so called relatives, and he quickly gained independence and street smarts came naturally to him. Downsides, he avoids authority like vampires avoid sunlight, and is slow to trust making it difficult to raise RL with others. You begin play just before the month of July when Hogwarts Letters are going out. Physical abilities are higher by default, but there is no bonus to raising either. Prerequisite of Martial Artist Harry." Special Skills: Skill Bonus: Thief, Stealth+10 per level, Natural Flying Talent, Familiar, Parselmouth. _Unlock Requirements: Run away from Dursleys during Tutorial, Decline going to Hogwarts, and live homeless without being captured or sent back to Dursleys for at least one year._

\- LOCKED -

Martial Artist Harry (11) - "Harry and Dudley grew up like brothers and early on they decided they wanted to learn karate like they saw on TV, so the Dursleys got them lessons. Harry took to it like a fish to water and soon mastered even the most advanced skills taught and showed incredible talent. In going to Hogwarts, Harry discovers that the Wizarding World is as much into martial arts as he is, and he learns new ways of combining the physical and the magical! Physical and Magical abilities are giving greater bonuses, and this avatar also introduces Training, allowing for leveling up Skills and Abilities beyond the Game limits. Prerequisite of Warrior Harry." Special Skills: Stamina+10 per level, Skill Bonus: Fighter, Natural Fighting Talent, Familiar, Parselmouth. _Unlock Requirements: Unlock Harry Dursley, Unlock Harry Gryffindor, Unlock Runaway Harry, play Runaway Harry for three years and join a dojo and attain Title of "Black Belt"._

\- LOCKED -

Unspeakable Harry (11) - "From the moment he learned of magic, Harry felt a calling, became obsessed with the dream of finding and discovering all that there could be about magic and how it worked and how it could be used. Easily obsessive towards his studies, this Harry has no social skills whatsoever, and the Bonus rewards for actually getting an RL above 6 is astronomical. Before even starting Fifth Year, this Harry will graduate Hogwarts and go to work for the Department of Mysteries as an Unspeakable. Prerequisite of The Professor." Special Skills: Eidetic Memory, Skill Bonus: Puzzler, Natural Magic Talent, Familiar, Parselmouth. _Unlock Requirements: Spy Harry, Auror Harry, Mercenary Harry, Dragon Tamer Harry, Cursebreaker Harry, Prankster Harry, and Potions Master Harry to be unlocked. Must get O+ in all courses for all Years and must take ALL courses from 3rd Year on (in any Avatar). Must complete quest 'Unspeakable Hazing'. Allows permanent access to Department of Mysteries for all Avatars_

\- LOCKED -

The Professor - "Chief Scientist of Mr. Black, partner to Henchgirl, and genius of the highest level. But doesn't really comprehend basic social skills or the concept of 'restraint' in just about any way. This character is only for advanced players, otherwise you may wind up killing yourself before you even realize what is going on. Physical and Magical abilities are average, but the Creation based skills are given significant and unreal bonuses." Special Skills: Skill Bonus: Creation, Natural Inventor Talent (Create new Creation-based skills!), Familiar, Spark! _Unlock Requirements: Unlock Unspeakable Harry, Unlock Baby Harry, and then while playing Baby Harry, model your life around the end goal of being like the Professor or Henchgirl. Locate The Professor and Henchgirl and attain the Title(s) of Apprentice to them._

Super Harry (11) - "The Ultimate Harry Potter! Only one other Avatar throughout the entire Game is as powerful or unbelievably awesome as this one! Unlimited Magic! Unlimited Health! Unlimited _Stamina_! All Abilities for ALL Avatars is unlocked and freely available! All Stats are always at their peak and the only need for leveling up is to get access to more areas! The primary consequence of this, of course, is that the enemies you'll face are just as enhanced and unstoppable. Only for Expert players." Special Skills: ALL OF THEM! _Unlock Requirements: Kill Voldemort solo, by yourself, with no Team, no friends, no help._

After having looked them over and seeing that only three of them were unlocked, not counting the one he'd just finished, he considered his options. Him as a girl, him raised by the Grangers, or the quote/unquote "Ultimate" him. First choice would be that Super Harry thing, but he'd learned a long time ago, at least it seemed like a long time ago, to pay attention when the Game gave warnings like that. In order of difficulty, a beginner is the lowest level, easiest setting, and most basic format with as few surprises as possible. Next up from that, is experienced, which is where the game put him after he completed the Tutorial, and if he were honest, he was actually only about halfway to being truly experienced. After all, he'd only completed First Year and that was plenty easy the first time. NOT!

After 'experienced' there was 'Advanced' and 'Expert'. Advanced was for somebody like Sirius, Remus, Professor McGonagall, or even Snape. Somebody that had lived for decades and had enough power to back up any reputation they deserved. Expert, on the other hand, was for somebody that was on par with Dumbledore and Voldemort, a cut above every other wizard and powerhouse the world had to offer. He was nowhere near there. Not yet.

Given the choices, he was tempted to go for the Granger one, but something about it was warning him off. He didn't know why it was unlocked. Sure there were those alerts after he got Voldemort that time, which was probably how he unlocked the Super Harry one, but he still hadn't actually met them. He wasn't about to chose a life where people he hadn't even truly met were supposed to be his parents, enough that he chose them over the Dursleys at least. Which left the girl him. Or one of the others unlocked that held nothing about any of the Cheat Codes for the Special 10.

On the other hand, the unlock requirements for those that do contain the needed Cheat Codes, they had other avatars listed as needing to be unlocked first. The one he was really dreading was the repeatedly mentioned 'Harry Dursley'. He knew he would have to get around to it eventually, but in all honesty, he was going to put that off for as long as he could. Although he did note that it actually was still locked. _Its_ unlock requirements said something about being nice to the Dursleys, he didn't pay very much attention. Oh wait, he had to get at least RL7 with all three of them, no time limit.

Stupid Game.

Seeing that his options weren't really all that attractive at present, Harry grumbled and canceled out of the New Game and went back to Load Game. He loaded his previous Save and found himself back in his dorm, getting ready for bed after completing the Third Floor Dungeon. He got into bed and went to sleep.

Stupid Game.

END Level 6


End file.
